Emerge bearing child close to natural philosopher (9)
I believe the answer is:
aristotle
'philosopher' is the definition.
(Aristotle is an example)
'emerge bearing child close to natural' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'bearing' could be 's' and 's' is found within the answer.
'child' could be 'tot' (term for a young child) and 'tot' is located in the answer.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for aristotle that I've seen before include "Old Greek teacher" , "Totaliser (anag) - ancient Greek" , "Ancient Athenian philosopher, pupil of Plato" , "Philosopher - treats oil (anag)" , "Greek philosopher (Poetics, Politics)" .)